“Plato would be so appalled by the television and internet that he would commend us for keeping it together this long.”

Prof. Esposito:

“Plato wants to know what Sophocles is trying to teach us in Ajax or Hecuba. It is not quite clear what Sophocles is trying to teach us and it is the uncertainty of the message that Plato is worried about.”

“In my opinion, Sophocles knows exactly what he was doing or trying to teach when he wrote Ajax. Ajax is a radical overturning of the Greek moral code; Sophocles wants us to think about the implications of the moral code.”

Prof. Roochnik:

“What suffers in a democracy is education because education needs authority and the big problem of democracy is the populaces’ distaste for authority. According to Socrates, this is what leads to the big problems of the city.”

“Philosophy, like many disciplines, requires freedom of thought and may in fact flourish within a democracy.”

As recorded by Core office employee Winona Hudak during the December 6th debate on democracy in CC101.

The problem with storytelling is that it appeals to the desirous part of the soul and not the rational — that’s why Socrates has such a problem with it. So, my question is: Would it be just to ban Sophocles and his plays in the city of Athens, when they clearly show a deep understanding of the human condition?

— Stephen Esposito, associate professor of classical studies and instructor in the Core Humanities, giving an example of the way individual liberty and civic interests can come into conflict, during the panel debate on democracy which took place during the last lecture of CC101 for this fall semester. Prof. Michael Corgan (International Relations), Prof. David Roochnik (Philosophy), and Prof. Jay Samons (Classics) also took part in this interdisciplinary discussion.